Week 4

Weeks 3 and 4 are out of order because week 3 Elder Johnson left the MTC. When he got to the mission home he wrote letters, but they weren't mailed out until this week and we don't have them yet. I will post week 3 when it arrives in the mail. This posting is from an email Elder Johnson sent on Monday, October 13, 2008.

Hi everybody!

So Spokane rocks! It is so beautiful up here! There are pine tress everywhere! I'm sending some pictures out in the mail sometime today or tomorrow or whenever. There's a few of the trees and the lake that is in the Woodrigde Ward. There will be a few of my pictures from the MTC as well. When I have a ton of pictures I'll just put them all onto a cd and send them all. Give the cd a month or so. I'll just send a few at a time for now. [No pictures yet, but I promise I'll post them as I get them!]

So I'm stationed in both the Indian Trail Ward and the Woodridge Ward. They both are awesome. When I got here there was a family on date to get baptized in the Indian Trail Ward and a few investigators and a bunch of potentials. Mostly we've been visiting members and less actives to get me introduced.

The family that's on date to be baptized is awesome! They're the Hargraves. Sister Hargraves is just getting over smoking. She'll be done with the chruch's stop smoking program tomorrow! She's really determind to be ready for baptism. The two girls are already ready, but they've been waiting for their mom. One of the girls is about 14 with a simple, but firm, testimony and the other girl has had hers for a while. She kind of opened the door to her family I guess. She returned from BYU and brought home a desire to learn more about the church. I think that's how it went, I don't really know much of the background story. I don't really know much background with anybody yet, but I will.

Tyler is an awesome dude! He's a 16 year old who needs to be taught the commandments. He's coming to church next Sunday and wants us to teach him '3 times this week'. He loves learning about the gospel! I think we will be able to get him on date to be baptized in November. I like teaching him I've gotten to see him progress already!

Another family is a non-married couple and her son. They need to stop smoking and get married, but they have big desire and that's what will pull them through. It's going to take them a long time, but I think they'll get there if they keep striving together. I wish I could tell you more about them but I know they wouldn't appriciate it.

NOBODY EMAIL ME ON MY HOTMAIL ACCOUNT PLEASE! [If you email him on his hotmail account I will make sure he gets it, but he prefers getting letters in his real mail box.]

Elder Hightower [Elder Johnson's companion] is a great trainer.. as far as I can tell anyway. He's patient though. I bet he's thinking of getting a dart board though just so he can put my green face on it. If he is, he doesn't let me know it though, he's a good dude.

Elder Hightower and I live in Brother and Sister Marx's basement. It's basically an appartment and it's nice. The elders call it the Tashma Hall.

I heart all of you,
Elder Johnson
-A.K.A. (That one guy who likes you who lives in northern Spokan right now at this very moment)

[Brackets]

Just want to answer a question: Yes, things in [brackets] are things I added, not things Elder Johnson wrote in his letter. Hope you all enjoyed conference!
-Renee

Weeks 1 & 2

Weeks 1 & 2
Elder Johnson and his sister have decided that a blog would be a good way for him to keep in touch with everyone, since he doesn't have time to write letters to everyone he would like to. This blog will be updated weekly (I hope!) Here are some highlights from Elder Johnson's first two weeks as a missionary...

Week 1

The MTC Rocks! We study all the time. When we aren't studying we are in meetings. The food is good..at least for now anyway. My companion is Elder Smith, which is funny cuz it makes us the stereotype elders. He is from Southern California. Our whole district are already great friends. We have a laughing problem though, sometimes. My teachers are both cool. Gym is fun so far. I've been playing basketball. I found out that Sis. Highland [one of his teachers] knows Anton's family [Marie's, (Elder Johnson's Sister) fiance from Russia.) We're already teaching the first lesson! It's awesome! The church is true and don't forget it! We got to go to the Provo temple. It's beautiful and spiritual. We learned Spokane is rated 2nd in the nation fpt homiside rates. We've started calling it Spokampton. Write to me! You have no idea how exciting it is to be handed a letter after lunch. Send me pictures too. Send questions at the end of your letters too.
Love ya All,
Elder Johnson

Week 2

The Missionary Training Compound is great! We've nicknamed our residence hall our "Cell Block." We call the laundry room "the Bunker." Showers are weird here, they are either hot or they're cold. The MTC is still good though. I've managed to get the first lesson down! We're learning lesson two now and we'll be learning about door approaches and such before Friday. Also, I've spent time at the Referral Center. [Where they do confirmation calls to see if people got their free Bible or movie, etc, and sometimes see if they want missionaries to come over.] I made a soapbox out of a cassette box (half of it I mean). We put the ribbon from the cassette on the fan in the class room and it brings us joy. Much joy. You can find racquetball in the residence halls. Binders become racquets and a bouncy ball works after you block the hall by closing the doors to the stairs. We learned how to open a locked door using dental floss, an envelope and a power cord from a vacuum. We can make light sabers from our cameras! Picture are coming soon to a mailbox [or blog in this case] near you. Don't worry, we aren't getting into trouble. We are normally very obedient. I'll be on my way to Spokane Monday morning. I'm excited to watch conference. It will be cool in the MTC.
-Elder Curtis Johnson